Tag Archives: Keaton Ellerby

The Kings on Saturday placed forward Jeff Carter on injured reserve (retroactive to Wednesday) because of a lower-body injury. They also announced they lost defenseman Keaton Ellerby to the Winnipeg Jets, who claimed him off waivers. The Kings recalled forwards Tyler Toffoli and Linden Vey from their ECHL affiliate in Ontario, where they stashed them Friday. Toffoli and Vey participated in the Kings’ morning skate in advance of Saturday’s home game against Nashville.

Here’s what Yahoo! Sports had to say about the Kings’ free agency efforts thus far:

The Kings lost The Piece, Rob Scuderi, to the Penguins and checking winger Brad Richardson to the Vancouver Canucks. They re-signed Keaton Ellerby for one year and inked Jeff Schultz, who was bought out by the Capitals for one year. Schultz is, as they say, not good. But hey, they’re still in the “pulling Matt Frattin for Bernier” afterglow, so …

Grade: D

Here’s what SI.com had to say while listing the Kings among the “losers:”

There was lots of talk suggesting they were in on Jarome Iginla — it’s easy to imagine how well he would have fit in with that group — but losing out on that bidding is nowhere near as painful as having to replace the steady Scuderi with Jeff Schultz (one year, $700,000), a player who could scarcely crack Washington’s D corps last season.

My own take:

If you ain’t getting better, you’re getting worse and the Kings ain’t getting better this summer. Not yet, anyway.

The Kings agreed to a new one-season deal with defensive-minded defenseman Keaton Ellerby on Thursday, the day before teams can begin signing free agents. Ellerby played 35 games with the Kings after they acquired him from the Florida Panthers on Feb. 7 for a fifth-round pick in the just-completed draft. He had three assists and 16 penalty minutes during the regular season. He also played five games during the playoffs. The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Ellerby also played nine games during the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season with the Panthers, but did not record a goal or an assist. Ellerby, 24, figures to be a depth defensemen for the Kings again next season.

Given the Kings’ offensive struggles, Darryl Sutter raised a few eyebrows by dressing seven defensemen, instead of the usual six, for Game 3. He offered an explanation Sunday for adding Alec Martinez to the defense corps for Saturday’s game.

“Fourth line hasn’t been playing much and our fourth-line right wing has played hardly at all,” Sutter said, referring to Jordan Nolan. “So, I thought I’d give Jeff Carter, Dustin Brown and Justin Williams a couple of more minutes. It gets us away from matchups. It worked (Saturday) night. Gives us more energy.”

Plus, by playing Martinez for the first time since April 2 against the Phoenix Coyotes, Sutter kept penalty-killing specialist Keaton Ellerby in the lineup. Ellerby helped the Kings to deny the Blues on four power play chances during Game 3.

“It gives our defense some energy, and obviously Keaton, you take Keaton out and you’re losing a guy who’s a really good penalty killer for us, and we didn’t want to do that,” Sutter added when asked about adding a seventh defenseman

The Kings played almost all of the lockout-shortened season without veteran defensemen Matt Greene and Willie Mitchell. Greene could be back soon after undergoing back surgery after playing one game. Mitchell is out for the duration after undergoing two knee surgeries. Their absence created a void and young players Keaton Ellerby and Jake Muzzin filled in capably, giving the Kings the sort of boost they needed to stay competitive.

Conventional wisdom suggested the Kings might be in serious trouble after veteran defensemen Matt Greene (back surgery) and Willie Mitchell (knee surgery) were injured. After all, they were huge factors in the Kings’ run to the Stanley Cup championship last spring. Who would replace them? How would they measure up?

Drew Doughty played on a World Junior championship team with Canada in 2008, a gold medal-winning team in the 2010 Olympics and a Stanley Cup title team with the Kings in 2012. He also was a finalist for the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman in 2010.

Is he ready for a new role as a mentor to the Kings’ Kiddie Korps on the blue line?

Who is behind Inside the Kings blog?

Elliott Teaford is an award-winning hockey reporter based in Southern California and witnessed the L.A. Kings win the Stanley Cup in 2012 and in '14. He grew up playing outdoors on the streets of Philadelphia. He also watched the Flyers bully their way to consecutive Stanley Cups in the 1970s, and makes no excuses for their quasi-legal play.

Comments policy

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@langnews.com.